After weeks of hearing from anonymous sources that Donald Trump resented Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the Russian investigation, Donald Trump said so himself to the NYTimes last week. Most Republicans expected that would be enough to compel Jeff Sessions to resign. Then on Friday, we got word from the intelligence community that Jeff Sessions had talked about the Trump campaign with the Russian ambassador, meaning he lied under oath when he said he hadn’t.

That right there should have been the end of Jeff Sessions. In a normal presidency, verifiable evidence of perjury in a Senate hearing is enough to get a man canned. But the GOP doesn’t want to push it, because Jeff Sessions is seemingly the only person standing in between Donald Trump and Bob Mueller, and Sessions refuses to resign. The GOP, best to my knowledge, hasn’t asked him to do so, although I have to believe that in normal circumstances, even the insanely partisan GOP would want to push out an AG on the hook for perjury.

In the meantime, Donald Trump is just twisting the knife. He continues to express his dismay with his AG, who — by the way — was the first mainstream public supporter of Trump, and who gave up a safe Senate seat to be Trump’s AG. Trump called Sessions “beleaguered” yesterday, and this morning, he’s at it again, calling out Sessions for not prosecuting Hillary Clinton (recall that after the election, Trump specifically stated that he had no further interest in going after Clinton):

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!

There are also reports from several sources saying that Trump wants Sessions to resign, and he’s even floated Rudy Giuliani and Ted Cruz as potential replacements (both have declined interest in the position). Trump even called an associate yesterday and asked, “What would happen if I fired Sessions?” Moreover, Anthony Scaramucci told Hugh Hewitt this morning that it’s apparent that Trump wants Sessions gone, although Scaramucci clearly forgot to delete this tweet:

AG Jeff Sessions is a stand-up guy. He's always said he would recuse himself from any case in which his impartiality could be questioned. pic.twitter.com/Pd7TM6e27R

This is crazy, because Sessions is basically the only guy in the Administration so far that’s actually been able to enact any of Trump’s racist “America First” policies. Sessions was Bannon’s mentor. Stephen Miller was Sessions’ Senate aide. The whole White House is basically carrying out the policies of Jeff fucking Sessions, and yet Trump wants to replace him with who? Who could get past the confirmation process without assuring the Senate that they wouldn’t fire Mueller?

Why does Trump continue to humiliate Sessions?

I asked two ppl close to Trump why he is tormenting Sessions instead of firing him. The answer from both, paraphrased: Because he can.

It’s not just Sessions, either. Despite his ties to Russia and his reluctance to speak with the media, Rex Tillerson has proven himself to be one of the adults in the room at the White House, so of course, he’s thinking about leaving soon, as well, because he can’t deal with the dysfunction and Trump doesn’t care for him.

H.R. McMaster, the National Security Advisor and again one of the adults in the room, is also on the outs, and there are reports that Trump is looking to dump him. Reince Priebus is also hanging by a thread. Meanwhile, Scaramucci is going through the comms office this week and weeding out anyone he thinks might be disloyal.

Trump is consolidating power. He’s trying to oust anyone who disagrees with him, all the while his popularity continues to decline. This has all the makings of an authoritarian regime, and the effing GOP is just standing on the sidelines, mouth agape, watching it happen. Don’t they understand that after he consolidates power within the executive that his next move is to weaken the Congress? That it doesn’t matter if they keep their jobs after the midterms if their jobs are meaningless?

The only joy I am getting out of any of this is the knowledge that Jeff Sessions is the most miserable fucker in the Administration right now. At least there is that.